The Advantage team is also significantly bigger, growing from 20 when O’Neill joined to almost 60 now.

But with several very long-serving members of staff in the organisation, O’Neill sees steadiness and stability as one of Advantage’s key ingredients.

“If you look at successful businesses, there is often a real consistency and longevity. Peter Long was in charge of Tui for many years - there weren't lots of changes. “Advantage has only had three leaders in the 17 years I’ve been here,” he points out. That continuity of service and steady growth is what we’re about.”

In fact, despite the gradual decline in high street retailing in the last decade, Advantage comprises almost as many retail outlets now as it did when he joined. The difference is their combined turnover - now at £3.5 billion per year - and the quality of members.

"Some poorer quality agents have gone out of business, but what you're left with is much stronger businesses, the ones that have kept reinventing themselves," he claims.

The other trend he's observed is the number of new members who have previously worked for Thomas Cook or Tui and are now setting up independent agencies, often as part of Advantage Managed Services.

"These agents are trained and disciplined to really drive sales, but then suddenly they can sell whatever they wish, and are absolutely flying.

"They're opening new shops, they're doubling their sales forecast in their first years; it's so exciting to watch."

And he is in no doubt about the future prospects of good agents in the UK.

“We’ve heard everyone predicting the death of the high street but there are agents who have stood tall throughout all the turbulence - failures, consolidation, disasters, terrorism. Those that have steadily evolved are the ones that will survive into the future,” he insists.

Career highlights

Another of the most rewarding - and demanding - aspects of his role has been helping steer Advantage’s annual members’ conference.

While he has fond memories of every conference for different reasons, he highlights Kuala Lumpur, 12 years ago, when the police organised outriders and held up the entire city’s traffic to let conference delegates get to their dinner. “Even if you were a big company like BMW or Hewlett Packard holding your conference in Kuala Lumpur, you’d never get that kind of special treatment,” he says.

Other stand-out moments include Lucerne where delegates sailed across Lake Lucerne and took a cable car up the mountain to dinner, and Malaga, when delegates had their “preconceptions completely changed”.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield, Iron Maiden front-man Bruce Dickinson, tennis legend Martina Navratilova, and retail guru Mary Portas have been just of the impressive conference speakers O’Neill has helped secure.

But none come close to Nando Perrado, the Uruguayan plane-crash survivor who spent two months trapped in the mountains following the Andes flight disaster in 1972. “Anyone who saw him speak at the 2010 conference will tell you that you’ll never see anybody better,” says O’Neill.

“The things we get to do in this industry and the people we get to meet - we must never take it for granted,” he warns. “We are so privileged.”

Memorable for other reasons is Joanna Lumley at the Malaga conference in 2012. After comparing O’Neill to actor Gregory Peck and flirting outrageously with him on-stage, O’Neill was visibly flustered for perhaps the first and last time in his career.
And who did O’Neill always have on his dream list, and was never able to secure?  “Stephen Fry; I think he’s brilliant. But also very expensive!”

This year’s conference at Club Med Opio en Provence is also shaping up to be a show-stopper, he promises, but he admits it will be difficult missing his first conference in 17 years: “I’ll be sitting in my garden at 4pm thinking, they’re just finishing their last session now and will be getting changed for the dinearound...it’s going to be a funny weekend for me.”

O’Neill is now hoping to open a coffee shop with his wife close to home in Cambridgeshire, to fulfill a long-held dream of working together.

“You can make £30 profit on a 12-inch cake; that’s a much better margin than you make selling holidays,” he jokes.

Mrs O’Neill would be in charge of the kitchen, leaving Colin in command of “front of house”.

“We often hold parties for 50 or 60 people and I love doing all the social bit,” he reveals. “I’m very good at topping people’s drinks up; it’s the legacy of all these years in travel.”

Until they find the perfect premises, he may take on some project or consultation work, but he’s sure he won’t be joining another travel business.

“It would be difficult to go back into another organisation after 17 years with the lovely team at Advantage. It's a company and a team I care hugely about, and I’ll miss my colleagues greatly.”

He is certainly not going to miss the two-hour door-to-door commute each way, however. “That was ultimately it – the distance. And it feels like now’s the time to do something different.”

And what would O’Neill like to be remembered for, by his colleagues and the countless friends and contacts he has made in the industry?

“My sense of humour, and lightheartedness, I hope,” he reflects.

“Of course, I’d like to be thought of as a business visionary who changed the lives of thousands of people…but if people just remember me with a smile on their faces I’d be happy.”